Want to know the history of AMVs?

[Thorblitzer]

Well, for those of you who remember me from a few months ago, I wrote my senior thesis on the history of AMVs. And it's finally finished. You can read it on my website:

http://thorblitzer.totaldamageequalsdea ... Thesis.htm

The paper is really long and probably has some errors in it, but it's there if you want to read it. I will have to rewrite this for my honors thesis next year, so if you find anything that's wrong, please let me know! Also, ignore my crummy html skills, I know the website could really use some work.

Thanks for everyone who helped me with this, even those of you who didn't know you were! I quoted lots of message boards, so you may be in my paper without even knowing it!

So check it out if you want and thanks again!

[MeriC]

I've really been looking forward to seeing the end result of your research. I can't wait to read it! I'll give it a nice look-through today. Congrats on finishing your thesis!

[Voices_Of_Ryan]

This is very interesting, I'd never relized the Simularites of the Lion king had been called into question even thouhg most of us who'd seen both (or even just the commericals for each) had noticed some pretty distinct ties to both of them.

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable parts was the Caldwell piece though, very insitefull and it plays almost like Caldwell is some sort of myth (much like kenshin hmm?) than a real person. Although I supposes that's alot how people at times might view him.

Overall it was a very insitefull guide to understanding more about perhaps why or how we all do this very odd use of time or artform. I found it incredibly entertaining to read and well written.

“Art is never unsurmountable [sic] or played out, it is constantly evolving,” creator Soren Berg says. -
Is a great line to understanding amvs.

[shumira_chan]

KC might indeed deserve his own section, but not mentioning
"You Know Who" is just criminal.

[AbsoluteDestiny]

KC might indeed deserve his own section, but not mentioning
"You Know Who" is just criminal.

Voldemort makes music videos?

[Otohiko]

Good work, I certainly approve. It certainly doesn't go very far in-depth (hey, I'm sure there's TOMES to be written for AMV's), but it does a good job of laying out the who-and-what of the community.

I don't think I have any complaints to add here.

[Kalium]

After a cursory examination, I have reached three conclusions:
1) I was apparantly rather naive as little as three months ago.
2) I'm cited no less than three times, so I have no complaints
3) I need to read this more carefully.

[Kai Stromler]

This is a really comprehensive survey; I'm not surprised that it was so well recognized by your academic audience. However, it is still a top-down survey about what is basically (or has become) an internet topic, and as such there are some obvious directions for extension if such is required.

The biggest one is the exploration of the role of the .org in the AMV community, and its transformative impact on what was before its emergence several distinct scenes. If the .org has not merged those scenes into one entity, it has definitely established its adherents as the dominating voice; whether just within its confines or in fandom at large.

The paper as it is follows mainly one scene of the pre-.org "community", the scene that saw themselves principally as anime fans and who made videos in a context mediated by convention exposure. Before the turn of the century, there was a parallel scene of fans working on the internet who did not attend conventions, did not have the same role models in AMVage, and did not have the same perspectives on the craft. This was probably the least major "re-invention" of AMV, following those detailed in the paper.

Their work, often only barely emerging from the "DBZ + metalcore" formula of the times, is still widely distributed on p2p networks, and is often a prime influence on the intermittent creators that make up most of the database. While some of the pre-.org internet-scene creators are anything but, it also might be worth exploring the influence that n00b tastes and n00b videos have over the general perception of AMV. They seldom play by .org conventions, and when they attempt to imitate .org models, whether stylistically or technically, they often fail in potentially interesting ways due to lack of patience or expertise.

Of course, the problem with doing a "bottom-up" survey is that the phenomenon you'd be trying to survey is caused by transients, who cause their effect and make it academically interesting by being here one day and gone the next. Tracking down and interviewing these people, as you've done so well with creators from the scenes that you addressed, is next to impossible. Similarly, in a new field like this you'd have to invent your own metrics for any kind of statistical analysis, which I'm not sure is even germane in a Journalism-Mass Communication paper (might be, dependent on how much social science goes into your requirements...).

Even if you don't follow this up, whoever's reviewing your work might be interested in seeing it in a "Future Work" section; the best sort of academic research is that which exposes or opens avenues for future research in the same area. It's an indication that you've found something worth studying -- people look askance at a paper that claims to touch on something major, yet also entirely wrap in up in a single article -- and also a professional courtesy to other researchers looking for something interesting to work on.


--

The above recs should be taken with a grain of salt and applied, if at all, within the bounds of your particular academic situation. The writer is familiar with common practices in natural sciences and language studies and is not versed in other areas of academic writing.

regards, and best luck with the thesis rewrite,

--K

[RichLather]

I agree with Kai; he said it more eloquently than I but that's mostly because I'm still all "shucks-gee-whiz" about getting cited a few times in a scholarly paper.

[Kalium]

I remember you telling me about that, Kai. Complete with hastily sketched diagrams on a random nearby scrap of paper. I just can't remember most of the details.